2015 Mazda5 power steering light on for 10+ minutes

heflix455

Member
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Mazda5
Having a bit of an issue with my Mazda and it's getting worse. When starting the car the power steering light comes on and the power steering is disabled for 10+ minutes. Started out at 20-30 seconds about a month ago. If the car is warm it only shows the light and disables the steering for 10-20 seconds.

Anyone ever come across this? The dealer said it was going to be around $4000 to fix and I'm not too keen on that. I have an odb2 scanner and couldn't pull up any codes when the light was on or off.
 
2015 should still be under warranty, no?
Perhaps need a better scanner to dig into other codes. If you are in Vancouver are, PM me, I have a slightly better then the generic ODB2 scanner that can pull other codes that are manufacturer specific.
 
Yeah unfortunately it's a rebuild so no warranty. I am in Vancouver so I may have to take you up on your offer.
 
Rebuilt? Welcome to the club.
If this is a fresh rebuilt, I'd go to who fixed it. My last rebuilt I had them replace whole power steering rack as it was messed up from the wreck and they cheaper out on the repair. Kinda depends who you bought it from. The place I got it from gave me one year unlimited warranty with them. He was not to happy spending 8 hours fixing it but sucked it up :)
I'm in live in maple ridge and work in DT Vancouver. So can meet you either place day time in DT weekend/evening at home.

The system is not electric, so should be reasonably easy to fix. Has the dealer given you a reason for the failure or just gave a random number high enough for you to go away? You can always just take the car for paid diagnosis and get the written estimate on what exactly is wrong and fix it on the side.
Worst I'd guess be a replacement power steering rack and a new pump. You should be able to find those at the wreck yard and perhaps replace yourself or pay some smaller shop to do the job.
Seems both parts would cost about $400USD combined on eBay.
 
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I had some free time this week and borrowed a friend's odb2 scan tool that also checks the ms-can and hs-can bus for Mazda's, Ford's etc (I think) and used forscan on my laptop. I got the following code u0131 - I cleared it and the problem went away for 3 or so days but now it's back.

When I search for that code it says something about loosing communication with power steering module. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm assuming the control module for the ps is in the pump on the front passengers side (a bunch of cables plug into it). My guess is it's either that module or the wiring (which is unlikely since the car is newer and I couldn't find any wear on the wiring loom). Does this make sense? I'm going to check the junkers for a replacement pump but do I need to get it reprogrammed by a Mazda dealer?
 
@heflix455 were you able to get this fixed? Same thing just started happening to my 2015 Mazda 5. On a hot weekend power steering failed, it worked for a while in the night. But seems to overheat and fail. Heard the same thing with 08 models.
 

For the guy in the video, he got his working by unplugging and plugging the connectors back in to make better contact. When he went to clean up the contacts properly and really double check the whole thing, he found lots of minor issues from a prior owner just hacking in a new pump at some point.

I'd look at the electrical connections.

Ultimately it looks like he shorted out the pump and needed a new one. Lesson to everyone to disconnect your battery before working on the electronic bits.
 
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Hmm ok thnx. I’ll have to check that out. Looks like the pump is quite hard to get to so I’ll have to wait for it to happen again and get a code. Oddly it only happens in really hot weather.
 
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